The cultivation of sugarcane is in strong expansion in the Cerrado region, requiring
management techniques to maintain the soil physical quality. The use of animal s
manure from intensive husbandry constitutes an alternative to reduce the physical
degradation of the poor soil use due to lower cost with chemical fertilizations and,
mostly, making possible the sustainable use of manures that present great polluting
potential. Thus, this research analyzed the use of manures in nature or composted as
alternatives to minimize the negative impacts in the soil, from sugarcane cultivation,
evaluating its effect in the soil s structure and other physical attributes. The area of the
research was located in the Farm of Cia Mineira of Sugar and Alcohol, county of
Uberlândia-MG. The experimental design was randomized blocks, in a 5x2x2 factorial,
with split plots in space, corresponding to five types of fertilization: chicken manure,
turkey manure, cattle manure, organic compost and the control, constituted of mineral
fertilizer for the sugarcane plants, all of them combined, or not, with gypsum,
previously mixed to the fertilizers and applied in the furrow; at two depths and two
distinct times of the year, at the rainy and dry seasons. Soil samples were collected in
January and July, in the depths of 0-25 cm and 25-50 cm, and were evaluated for
dispersed clay in water, flocculation degree, aggregate stability in water, geometric
average diameter, soil organic matter, soil density, microporosity, macroporosity and
total porosity according of methodology described by Embrapa (1997). The data were
submitted to the analysis of variance and the averages of the factors compared by the
Tukey test at 0.05 of significance. It was observed that the different types of manures
affected the soil physical attributes in distinct ways. The presence of gypsum, mixed to
the different types of organic fertilizer, made possible a greater efficiency of these in the
recovery of the majority of the analyzed physical attributes, and the greatest effect was
observed for the depth of 25-50 cm in the soil. Among the types of organic fertilizer
used, cattle manure mixed with or without gypsum was the one contributing the most to
increase total porosity and to reduce soil density. The chemical fertilizer negatively
affected dispersed clay in water and, consequently, the reduction of the soil flocculation
degree. However, for the other fertilizers analyzed, the dispersed clay in water showed
value reductions in the dry season, with greater movement of the clay in soil columns.
The greatest values of geometric average diameter and soil organic matter were
observed in the rainy season, while the presence of gypsum mixed to fertilizer favored
the formation of greater aggregates in the depth of 25-50 cm. The soil physical
properties, for the attributes evaluated, varied distinctly between the rainy and the dry
period of the year, reflecting the importance of moisture in the soil.